Electric discharges in high-voltage power distribution systems can be localized through their electromagnetic signature in the radio-frequency range. Since discharges produce series of short pulses, the corresponding spectrum usually covers wide frequency ranges, typically up to 1 GHz. In this paper, we propose an ultra-wide band (UWB) antenna system and a direction-finding (DF) approach based on using energy-based descriptors, instead of classical frequency-domain parameters. As an antenna system, we propose a dual-padlock configuration with a suitable pulse-matched response, featuring two unbalanced outputs. The proposed antenna system was successfully validated, both by simulations and measurements.
Keywords: direction finding; energy-based antenna descriptors; pulsed sources; ultra-wide band antennas.